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Skin Deep
Skin Deep is the third (following El Borbah and Big Baby) of a hardcover series of four volumes reprinting his acclaimed oeuvre up to his current project, the ongoing Black Hole comic book series.
Skin Deep includes Burns' popular character, Dog Boy, a red-blooded All-American boy with the transplanted heart of a dog, which was turned into a live action segment on MTV's Liquid Television series; new covers and endpapers; as well as several pages of new illustrations from his sketchbooks, as well as covers and other drawings from foreign editions of his work.
Skin Deep includes Burns' popular character, Dog Boy, a red-blooded All-American boy with the transplanted heart of a dog, which was turned into a live action segment on MTV's Liquid Television series; new covers and endpapers; as well as several pages of new illustrations from his sketchbooks, as well as covers and other drawings from foreign editions of his work.
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
5 people are currently reading
703 people want to read
About the author
Charles Burns
101 books1,116 followersCharles Burns is an American cartoonist and illustrator.
Burns grew up in Seattle in the 1970s. His comic book work rose to prominence in Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly magazine 'RAW' in the mid-1980s. Nowadays, Burns is best known for the horror/coming of age graphic novel Black Hole, originally serialised in twelve issues between 1995 and 2004. The story was eventually collected in one volume by Pantheon Books and received Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards in 2005. His following works X'ed Out (2010), The Hive (2012), Sugar Skull (2014), Last Look (2016) and Last Cut (2024) have also been published by Pantheon Books, although the latter was first released in France as a series of three French comic albums.
As an illustrator, Charles Burns has been involved in a wide range of projects, from Iggy Pop album covers to an ad campaign for Altoids. In 1992 he designed the sets for Mark Morris's restaging of The Nutcracker (renamed The Hard Nut) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He illustrated covers for Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. He was also tapped as the official cover artist for The Believer magazine at its inception in 2003.
Burns lives in Philadelphia with his wife and daughters.
Burns grew up in Seattle in the 1970s. His comic book work rose to prominence in Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly magazine 'RAW' in the mid-1980s. Nowadays, Burns is best known for the horror/coming of age graphic novel Black Hole, originally serialised in twelve issues between 1995 and 2004. The story was eventually collected in one volume by Pantheon Books and received Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards in 2005. His following works X'ed Out (2010), The Hive (2012), Sugar Skull (2014), Last Look (2016) and Last Cut (2024) have also been published by Pantheon Books, although the latter was first released in France as a series of three French comic albums.
As an illustrator, Charles Burns has been involved in a wide range of projects, from Iggy Pop album covers to an ad campaign for Altoids. In 1992 he designed the sets for Mark Morris's restaging of The Nutcracker (renamed The Hard Nut) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He illustrated covers for Time, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. He was also tapped as the official cover artist for The Believer magazine at its inception in 2003.
Burns lives in Philadelphia with his wife and daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
June 24, 2013
I love the monster Kid, Mexican wrestling, Twilight Zone, imaginary early '60s, sick, slightly off, David Cronenbergesque biological mutation, science fiction, psychedelic world that Charles Burns creates in his work. These are three stories from his Big Baby strip loosely linked together, a kind of weird, episodic-horror-anthology-film-by-Amicus triptych. Mostly in Burns' stuff I find all of the above stylistic elements covering up an actually naive early '60s comic strip innocence with the curiosity and vaguely musty/moldy terror of adolescent sexual desire permeating the stories. Burns hits adolescence right on with the pop psychology that blames parents/the adult world for its capitalistic/opportunistic abuse and how it drives us to madness and murder, has papa stealing your girl in a reverse Oedipus, makes you the high-school laughingstock with your doggie heart, and mixes marriage with war and dismemberment, the ultimate anxiety, how gender and identity, without adult sex, can be a hidden secret beneath the veneer of clothing and culture and who knows what going to war, working in a library, or taking many, many business trips does to our identity and gender-identity.
I really love Burns' more recent graphic novel Black Hole and many of these same themes are much more subtly and eerily realistically presented there, so Skin Deep is both more quick, a tad more fun, but considerably less sublime than the full-on graphic novel--it's great for those of short attention spans and who might crave a tad more stylistic flash and fun impact from your summer comic reading. Evviva!
I really love Burns' more recent graphic novel Black Hole and many of these same themes are much more subtly and eerily realistically presented there, so Skin Deep is both more quick, a tad more fun, but considerably less sublime than the full-on graphic novel--it's great for those of short attention spans and who might crave a tad more stylistic flash and fun impact from your summer comic reading. Evviva!
August 26, 2012
Burns says, It's a cold, cruel world.
For things like dog-boy and Bliss Blister, it really is. It's like taking that extra bean you found on the floor of the club, only to realize your hair is now symmetrical H R Giger tentacles and the world you live in is controlled by an angry, one-eyed GAWD who drives even Bill Burroughs crazy with His demands. "Burn Again" is the best story here, combining fanatic evangelism with aliens and a revenge plot. Burns draws his characters like he is on drugs, but it's really just an analgesic for your own mind, softening the content by making the characters pop out of the '40s & '50s. Not his best, but even C. Burn's worst is better than most.
For things like dog-boy and Bliss Blister, it really is. It's like taking that extra bean you found on the floor of the club, only to realize your hair is now symmetrical H R Giger tentacles and the world you live in is controlled by an angry, one-eyed GAWD who drives even Bill Burroughs crazy with His demands. "Burn Again" is the best story here, combining fanatic evangelism with aliens and a revenge plot. Burns draws his characters like he is on drugs, but it's really just an analgesic for your own mind, softening the content by making the characters pop out of the '40s & '50s. Not his best, but even C. Burn's worst is better than most.
March 28, 2018
This graphic novel is another classic by Burns. This time using his name to burn a story skin deep into our skulls.
"Burn Again" and "Marriage from Hell" are sizzling masterpieces.
"Burn Again" and "Marriage from Hell" are sizzling masterpieces.
April 14, 2021
Another great book from Burns. This is the last of I've read of what I think of as his Red Trilogy. I just love the whole world he has created within these stories. There is something so fun about an artist taking our own world, and twisting it to suit their fiction. I'd NEVER want to live in a world that Burns created, but man do I wish there was a lot more work like this!
December 27, 2020
It’s great seeing Burn’s style in service of something a little more silly. This whole thing was a banger, now I’m a certified Burns fan. His art is so great, and my god the inking is absolutely perfect.
September 7, 2023
Skin Deep ne fait que reaffirmer ce que j'ai écrit précedemment dans les autres revues sur Charles Burns: ma grande (re)découverte de 2023. Une année ou je me delecte - enfin!, en découvrant les œuvres de grande envergure de Burns. Scenarios et dessins époustouflants. La grande dose au carré quoi!
December 30, 2023
'Skin Deep'
Tres historias cortas sobre esquizofrenia, terror paranoico, divinidades encolerizadas, hombres con corazón de perro, matrimonios falsos (estética de los años cuarenta) y fuego, muchos fuego.
Tres historias cortas sobre esquizofrenia, terror paranoico, divinidades encolerizadas, hombres con corazón de perro, matrimonios falsos (estética de los años cuarenta) y fuego, muchos fuego.
September 16, 2025
Early Burns is good and weird, a preview of nightmares to come.
August 20, 2024
Fyrsta sagan um hundamanninn er nokkuð góð en það er önnur sagan sem er langbest.
Þar lifir ungur drengur af eldsvoða sem barn en fær eftir það brunasár sem er í laginu eins og andlit Krists. Hann hagnast á brunasárinu og verður að vinsælu túrista-aðdráttarafli. Á eldri árum kemst hann í kynni við eineygða geimveru sem segist vera Guð. Í kjölfarið spáir maðurinn fyrir um endalok mannkynsins og sankar að sér stórum fylgjendahópi. Síðan gerist ýmislegt.
Þriðja sagan er styst og síst en samt ansi skemmtileg.
Þar lifir ungur drengur af eldsvoða sem barn en fær eftir það brunasár sem er í laginu eins og andlit Krists. Hann hagnast á brunasárinu og verður að vinsælu túrista-aðdráttarafli. Á eldri árum kemst hann í kynni við eineygða geimveru sem segist vera Guð. Í kjölfarið spáir maðurinn fyrir um endalok mannkynsins og sankar að sér stórum fylgjendahópi. Síðan gerist ýmislegt.
Þriðja sagan er styst og síst en samt ansi skemmtileg.
May 28, 2014
Accidentally got the Spanish edition from the library -- pretty great, though I'm sure the translation and my slackass understanding of the King's Castellano detracted from the writing a tad. Love that late 80s/early 90s grotesque style. A world of impenetrable retro freaks, slick-haired evangelicals and sales jerks, projected from the 1950s through the Reagan nightmare with a heavy dose of EC horror comix. Great shit. Romance gone awry with a wonderful touch, an epic televangelical empire builder tale, and a dopey little circus freak story with a version of Doctor Benway showing up. Not a complaint in the world. One funny thing: the binding! It was like three comic books bound together, with the first and last being shorter than the middle section. It really made the three stories (although slightly intertwined) stand apart palpably, tangibly. Neat trick.
October 23, 2015
One of my favorite collections from Burns. With direct allusions to Burroughs' NAKED LUNCH and the Manson Family as well as satirical indictment of American televangelism, domesticity, and soap operas, there's something a bit John Waters-esque about these three loosely interlocking (and sometimes meta) narratives. Also, it's probably the best example of the artist hilariously utilizing his grotesque sensibility. I particularly like the intentionally self-deprecating portrait of himself as Karmen Reesey on pg 59.
December 16, 2017
Charles Burns is a giant of the medium. His books never disappoint and this one is no exception. My favourite material of his was the Black Hole series but this ranks in amongst his best work. In my mind Burns can be mentioned in the same breath as Daniel Clowes, Chester Brown, Seth, and Chris Ware. 9/10
November 24, 2010
If Rod Serling had had an "acid baby" with Elvira. . . or if the old Night Gallery had been broadcast from an alien planet. . . or if H. P. Lovecraft had moved to Los Angeles and started a punk rock band circa 1977. . .
February 20, 2015
Every sick, twisted and well-executed thing you could ever want in a graphic novel. Things you didn't even know you wanted.
October 9, 2022
Skin Deep is a cycle of three essentially unrelated comics, though they are connected via a device whereby the initial pages of each comic feature an aspect from the one that precedes it (the collection's first comic also being connected to Burns's Big Baby comics in this way). The connecting gimmick notwithstanding, there are several commonalities that make the three comics fit together: they all combine horror with romance, they all deconstruct 1950s US society, and they all fall tonally somewhere between the straight-up weirdness of El Borbah and the more grounded horror of Big Baby.
The collection's first comic, the 20-page "Dog Days", is my favourite of the three. Following a young man who starts exhibiting strange behaviour after a back-alley surgical procedure, it's an excellent mix of humour and genuinely unsettling psychological horror. I always find the idea of losing control of one's own mind and personality darkly fascinating, and Burns handles the premise superbly, taking it in a highly original (if somewhat absurd) direction.
The second comic, "Burn Again", is the longest, at 47 pages, but it's also my least favourite. It's the closest in tone to the El Borbah strips, and it's also very reminiscent of Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes: it's a meandering and outlandish tale of larger-than-life characters embroiled in bizarre events. Overall it's entertaining but not as memorable as most of Burns's work, and its ending is a bit abrupt and anticlimactic.
The last comic, the 14-page "A Marriage Made in Hell", is slight but is executed perfectly. With its wild twist ending it follows the tradition of EC horror comics, but with its down-to-earth domestic drama it also hints at the direction that Burns would later take in his magna opera, Black Hole and Last Look, which are driven by believable characters and interpersonal relationships.
Although first published in 1992, just three years before the first issue of Black Hole, this work is still very different from what would become Burns’s signature style, but it nonetheless shows a hugely talented creator with a highly original artistic voice. Very good comics, by any metric.
The collection's first comic, the 20-page "Dog Days", is my favourite of the three. Following a young man who starts exhibiting strange behaviour after a back-alley surgical procedure, it's an excellent mix of humour and genuinely unsettling psychological horror. I always find the idea of losing control of one's own mind and personality darkly fascinating, and Burns handles the premise superbly, taking it in a highly original (if somewhat absurd) direction.
The second comic, "Burn Again", is the longest, at 47 pages, but it's also my least favourite. It's the closest in tone to the El Borbah strips, and it's also very reminiscent of Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes: it's a meandering and outlandish tale of larger-than-life characters embroiled in bizarre events. Overall it's entertaining but not as memorable as most of Burns's work, and its ending is a bit abrupt and anticlimactic.
The last comic, the 14-page "A Marriage Made in Hell", is slight but is executed perfectly. With its wild twist ending it follows the tradition of EC horror comics, but with its down-to-earth domestic drama it also hints at the direction that Burns would later take in his magna opera, Black Hole and Last Look, which are driven by believable characters and interpersonal relationships.
Although first published in 1992, just three years before the first issue of Black Hole, this work is still very different from what would become Burns’s signature style, but it nonetheless shows a hugely talented creator with a highly original artistic voice. Very good comics, by any metric.
March 22, 2024
Skin Deep collects three early Burns comics, originally published in Raw. Opening with the great short story, "Dog Days", Burns briefly returns to the perspective of Tony Delmonto, AKA "Big Baby", before the story dovetails into a bizarre but highly funny story about a young man who opts into a cut-rate surgery to turn into a "Dog Boy". There's a heavy psychological slant to this story, but Burns' work is peak absurdism so it keeps things surprisingly light as well.
"Burn Again" follows this and isn't quite as sharp as "Dog Days" is, but still quite good. Riffing a little on the concept of "Chick tracts" (Jack Chick's infamous religious babble passed off as comics), the story is a highly surreal, dreamlike jaunt into religious fervor. The narrative structure is a little amorphous and perhaps a tad unsatisfying, but by vibes and humor alone, it's a worthwhile read.
The final story, "A Marriage Made in Hell" is quite short but somehow manages to be utterly bleak. It's very early Burns so the artwork lacks the thick, dense lines of his later pieces, but it demonstrates his handle for delivering realistic stories with a sense of heightened absurdism well. It's a slight riff on early pre-Code horror comics, but the story is grounded in reality enough to make for an interesting blend of drama and surrealism.
Though this collection shows Burns' evolution as a cartoonist, it's also quite clear that he was mostly fully formed as an enigmatic and inventive storyteller early on. Well worth the pickup for any fans of Charles Burns' more prominent works.
"Burn Again" follows this and isn't quite as sharp as "Dog Days" is, but still quite good. Riffing a little on the concept of "Chick tracts" (Jack Chick's infamous religious babble passed off as comics), the story is a highly surreal, dreamlike jaunt into religious fervor. The narrative structure is a little amorphous and perhaps a tad unsatisfying, but by vibes and humor alone, it's a worthwhile read.
The final story, "A Marriage Made in Hell" is quite short but somehow manages to be utterly bleak. It's very early Burns so the artwork lacks the thick, dense lines of his later pieces, but it demonstrates his handle for delivering realistic stories with a sense of heightened absurdism well. It's a slight riff on early pre-Code horror comics, but the story is grounded in reality enough to make for an interesting blend of drama and surrealism.
Though this collection shows Burns' evolution as a cartoonist, it's also quite clear that he was mostly fully formed as an enigmatic and inventive storyteller early on. Well worth the pickup for any fans of Charles Burns' more prominent works.
April 14, 2025
Segundo tomo.
Vale, este me lo he fundido en una tarde, jajaja. Charles Burns nos regala un recorrido extrañamente divertido por un terror evangélico, casi cósmico, lleno de aliens, monstruos cronemberguianos —como bien dice Lee Foust en una de las reseñas— y propuestas visuales extrañas, a través de un estilo muy adelantado a su tiempo que, por momentos, me recordaba a los panfletos retrofuturistas de la saga de videojuegos Fallout.
Bliss Blisters es, para mí, la mejor de las tres historietas. No solo por lo ameno y dinámico de la trama, sino por esa capacidad hilarante de sumergirte en la mente de un esquizofrénico que cree estar en contacto con Dios, después de haber sido carne de cañón para la empresa de su padre: un tipo avaro que, tras provocarle una quemadura con forma del rostro de Jesús, lo convirtió en un freak milagroso, supuesto curador de enfermedades y desdichas.
Sin mucho más que añadir, aunque este tomo es más ligero y algo tontorrón, me ha gustado mucho. Espero con ganas seguir leyendo más de Charles Burns y seguir explorando ese mundo grotesco, incómodo y brillante que sale de su cabeza.
4/5
Vale, este me lo he fundido en una tarde, jajaja. Charles Burns nos regala un recorrido extrañamente divertido por un terror evangélico, casi cósmico, lleno de aliens, monstruos cronemberguianos —como bien dice Lee Foust en una de las reseñas— y propuestas visuales extrañas, a través de un estilo muy adelantado a su tiempo que, por momentos, me recordaba a los panfletos retrofuturistas de la saga de videojuegos Fallout.
Bliss Blisters es, para mí, la mejor de las tres historietas. No solo por lo ameno y dinámico de la trama, sino por esa capacidad hilarante de sumergirte en la mente de un esquizofrénico que cree estar en contacto con Dios, después de haber sido carne de cañón para la empresa de su padre: un tipo avaro que, tras provocarle una quemadura con forma del rostro de Jesús, lo convirtió en un freak milagroso, supuesto curador de enfermedades y desdichas.
Sin mucho más que añadir, aunque este tomo es más ligero y algo tontorrón, me ha gustado mucho. Espero con ganas seguir leyendo más de Charles Burns y seguir explorando ese mundo grotesco, incómodo y brillante que sale de su cabeza.
4/5
February 11, 2025
Charles Burns just does everything right for me, this collection is no exception. He leans so heavily on the absurd that even the most horrific moments are charming and twee. As Burns himself says, “everyone is living in a cold, cold world.” His work is bleak, but he embraces naïveté so heavily that it’s easy to coast through this psychedelic Lynchian madness.
Skin Deep collects three stories from Big Baby Magazine. The first, Dog Day was turned into a short (Dog-Boy) on MTV’s classic show Liquid Television. It is delightfully earnest and goofy. The second, Burn Again, is a banger tale about a snake oil evangelist that gets caught up as a mouthpiece leading an alien death cult. The third, A Marriage Made in Hell, is a fun twist on the 60s True Romance stories.
I highly recommend it to anyone that loves Richard Sala and Jim Woodring.
Skin Deep collects three stories from Big Baby Magazine. The first, Dog Day was turned into a short (Dog-Boy) on MTV’s classic show Liquid Television. It is delightfully earnest and goofy. The second, Burn Again, is a banger tale about a snake oil evangelist that gets caught up as a mouthpiece leading an alien death cult. The third, A Marriage Made in Hell, is a fun twist on the 60s True Romance stories.
I highly recommend it to anyone that loves Richard Sala and Jim Woodring.
November 30, 2025
Three fun stories that play on EC Comics stylings. Dog Boy is just the story of our husband, a man with the heart of a dog who manages to find love. A Marriage Made in Hell is a subversion of romance comics that also manages to hit on (and fumble a little) queer feelings. The centerpiece tale, though, is really Burn Again, the longest story of the three, about the life of a boy who worked for his scam preacher father and never manages to escape the lifestyle. A tragedy about someone who never finds themself because they spend their life believing everything they're doing is for a higher power, whether it be for his father, his lover, or God.
November 4, 2018
Recommended if you already know that you like Charles Burns. If I understand correctly, these are some of his older stories from underground magazines, but redone. There are three stories and all of them are pretty strange. I like strange, so this is great for me. If anything is a detractor, it's the way he does the faces. All the main characters are done with weird eyes, and sometimes are missing eyebrows. They just look like freaky aliens and it's cool, but unsettling.
August 3, 2022
A must for lovers of sick and twisted "comix." Art Spiegelman is involved with this, which is why I found it in the catalog at my library after searching his name.
I could swear the edition I read was a hardcover, but I couldn't find a hardcover edition from 1992 listed. maybe it was a special library edition?
I could swear the edition I read was a hardcover, but I couldn't find a hardcover edition from 1992 listed. maybe it was a special library edition?
February 20, 2018
This was pretty amazing. It is like three episodes of the twilight zone rolled into one graphic novel. The art is really amazing and the style encapsulates the style of the 40's/50's. This was a great read. Totally entertaining.
May 25, 2018
Three very odd Charles Burns stories in an oversized volume. Burns’ art is awesome as always, but these stories didn’t seem to have any other purpose beyond being weird as hell. They weren’t bad or anything, but they also weren’t particularly good. Still, I’ll be reading more Burns stuff.
July 6, 2022
Stories from the twisted imagination of Charles Burns are always a pleasure to read and look at. None of the three stories of the collection are predictable or obvious. They are beautiful and unsettling.
February 18, 2024
perfectly executed spin on eerie tales of suspense, but Burns’ acerbic tone might never be for me. still gonna marvel over the layouts and brushstrokes tho
August 11, 2025
«Oye… ¿tú no eres el niño predicador? ¡Sales en el periódico! ¡Tu padre y tu madre te buscan!»
Fnac — Llongueras Plaza Norte 2
Fnac — Llongueras Plaza Norte 2
August 25, 2025
Some quality twists and turns!
January 8, 2026
crazy, hilarious, a must read!
March 19, 2017
a charles burns classic !!!!!
May 17, 2024
Ottobre del 2019. Questa infatuazione a forma di vignette è nata in quell'autunno di quell'anno e tutto iniziò con la recensione di "Skin deep" su una nota rivista italiana settimanale (Sportweek) trovato li, ad attendermi in un bar. (Offtopic: Se vi capita sfogliatelo, a seconda dei generi ci sono tanti titoli proposti interessanti e spesso mi son segnato molti di essi sul telefono, come in questo caso).
Galeotta fu una storia che m'ipnotizzò:
Tre racconti sulla schizofrenia, il terrore paranoico, le divinità arrabbiate, gli uomini dal cuore di cane (quando avevo letto queste parole il mio pensiero finì subito al romanzo classico "Cuore di cane" di Michail Bulgakov e di quanto l'ho amato nel corso degli anni), i matrimoni finti (estetica degli anni Quaranta) e il fuoco, tanto fuoco.
Ancora una volta, storie un po' bizzarre, come se uscissero dalla testa di David Lynch, dando veramente un senso concreto a quel titolo, ("Skin deep", sotto pelle) in quanto le ho sentite veramente tali. Soprattutto, Burns tratta i volti in modo brillante. Dando una caratteristica etica al disegno dei vari protagonisti: Charles non ha una matita per disegnare, in questo caso ha un vero e proprio bisturi!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ su 5 . "La dove tutto, per me, ebbe inizio"
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews